PUTTING a clean spin on an otherwise smelly business, last month Nambucca Shire Council outed itself to the Environmental Protection Authority when a leaking pipe spewed raw sewage into Nambucca State Forest.
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The council’s general manager Michael Coulter said the EPA was alerted on September 30 as a way of ensuring the council would focus on improving systems to detect and prevent such sewage leaks in the future.
Responding to questions from the Guardian, Mr Coulter said it was estimated up to a million litres of raw sewage leaked into the forest, a volume he described as ‘very alarming’.
“The best staff can ascertain is that the break happened on the Friday and was not detected until Monday when the electrician at the Nambucca Heads Sewage Treatment Plant noticed a drop in the running time of the ultraviolet system,” Mr Coulter said.
“After some detective work, the leak was found and repaired. We are confident no sewage reached any waterway.
“Disclosing the matter was a way of putting pressure on ourselves to make sure we lifted our game.
“Staff is now trying to source improved telemetry to provide quicker detection of such incidents in the future.”
Manager of the EPA's North Coast Region, Brett Nudd, said no regulatory action was taken because the spill did not fall into the most dangerous category of environmental incidents, such as toxic chemicals.
The EPA accepted the break in the rising sewer main was unforeseeable and instructed the council to exercise “all due diligence” in the future.
